The Borromeo String Quartet opened the Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem’s 2013-2014 concert season at Foy Hall Friday evening with a double nod to the future. The first hint of what might become the norm was the cluster of music stands on the stage holding not sheet music, but Macbook laptops.

Gone is the drama of watching a violinist deftly flip pages of her score with the flick of her bow-tip. Now this is done via the gentle tap of a footswitch.

The second glimpse into the future was the ensemble’s rather unorthodox seating arrangement, where the second violinist and violist swapped their usual places. This configuration, second violinist Kristopher Tong informed me, antiphonally separates the first and second violins, and is becoming increasingly popular with opera orchestras. Modern string quartets seem to be welcoming it as well, since it allows the viola to better project its voice, which now comes from f-holes facing the audience.

The program looked both forward and back, with works by Beethoven and Dvorak bookending Russian-born American composer Lera Auerbach’s String Quartet No. 7, in its Pennsylvania premiere.

Perhaps the unique seating arrangement explained the quartet’s unusually rich, lush sound, notable at once from the opening of Beethoven’s final major work, his Op. 135 string quartet. The first two movements moved forward with a jovial crispness, sounding like Haydn at his good-natured best. But the austere lento left Haydn’s glimmer behind, as the deep resonance of Mai Motobuchi’s viola conjured a darkened mood, recalling the famous molto adagio of Beethoven’s Op. 132. The Borromeo splendidly lifted the gloom by the middle of the finale, with forceful articulation of the three-note sequence that to Beethoven – and apparently to the audience as well – resounded with affirmation.

This was only the second performance of the Auerbach quartet, commissioned for the Borromeo and premiered in September, first violinist Nicholas Kitchen told the audience. Divided into three sections, the lengthy 30 minute piece opened in a dreamlike, contemplative mood, with plenty of weeping glissandos and droopy sighs that became more agitated as the first part progressed. The second part sounded more angular and sharp-edged, morphing into a kind of dance macabre, with plenty of hints of Shostakovich. Supernatural-sounding tremolos abounded in this spellbinding piece, which ended in a recapitulation of its opening themes, intensified by some lovely, soul-searching cello solos by Yeesum Kim.

The Borromeo’s reading of the final work of the evening, Dvorak’s Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, seemed to sound out Dvorak’s more contemplative side over his ebullience. The opening melancholy of the dumka went unrelieved by the exuberance one expects to follow it, and the vitality of the furiant was unconvincing. The finale, if a bit restrained, managed to salvage some much-appreciated energy to end the work in typical Dvorak lightheartedness.

As an encore, the Borromeo closed this overall impressive program with the lively scherzo from Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18, No. 6.

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.